92: Distributing Forms - Adobe ACROBAT 9 HOW-TOS Manual

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Once you've finished building and testing your form, you have to get it
to your respondents. Acrobat 9 offers three methods for distribution. You
can use an e-mail distribution process, which has been extended to Acro-
bat 9 Standard users. As with other collaborative efforts, you can store
and manage your form process from Acrobat.com. You can also use your
own intranet to serve the forms and collect the data.
Note
If necessary, be sure to add security or digital signature information to
the form before distributing it. For details on setting permissions for using
form fields, see #119, "Using Security Levels and Passwords for a Docu-
ment"; read about using signatures in #121, "Signing a Document. "
In this technique, read how to distribute a form using e-mail and
Acrobat.com. If you are distributing and collecting forms by e-mail, and
intend to include respondents using older versions of Adobe Reader,
choose Advanced > Extend Features in Adobe Reader. Read more about
enabling a document for use in Adobe Reader in the sidebar "Including
Adobe Reader Users. " However, if you are working with an Acrobat.com
distribution method, only Adobe Reader 9 users can access the file, so you
don't need to enable the form manually.
Regardless of the distribution method, you initiate the process the
same way. Choose Forms > Distribute Form from the menu or Forms task
button. If you have a form file open, click Distribute
Message Bar to open the Distribute Form wizard.
To set up a form for e-mail distribution, follow these steps:
1. In the Distribute Form wizard, choose "Manually collect responses in
my email inbox" from the pop-up menu. The screen shows a graphic
representation of the process (Figure 92a). If you usually use the same
distribution method, select the "Remember my choice" check box at
the bottom of the screen. Click Next.
Distributing Forms
on the Document
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#92: Distributing Forms
249
Automating Return
Storage
When Acrobat prepares a
file for distribution, part
of the process is creating
a PDF portfolio to manage
the returns. By default, the
returns file is stored in the
same folder as your form,
and uses the form's name
with "_responses" appended
to the name.
Preferences for Easier
Form Completion
Try some of these
preferences—you may
find that they increase your
form's processing speed and
make working with forms
simpler.
Choose Edit > Preferences >
Forms (Acrobat > Prefer-
ences > Forms) and look for
these options:
•
"Automatically calculate
field values" lets you calcu-
late the content of numeri-
cal fields when you enter
the data. Often this feature
is programmed into the
form (see some simple
calculations in #89, "Add-
ing Calculations and Field
Behaviors").
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From the Library of Daniel Dadian